20 best sitcom squads we want to be friends with
By Reed Gaudens
3. How I Met Your Mother
Members: For most of How I Met Your Mother’s nine seasons, the McLaren’s Pub crew remained the tight-knit bunch of Ted (Josh Radnor), Marshall (Jason Segel), Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Robin (Cobie Smulders), and Barney (Neil Patrick Harris). Sure, between the three singles, many short-lived significant others like Stella (Sarah Chalke) or Quinn (Becki Newton) infiltrated the group. But only in the final season would the crew gain an official sixth member in Tracy, a.k.a. The Mother (Cristin Milioti).
Memorable moments: How I Met Your Mother took the premise of sitcom friend groups and turned it up to the extreme. It’s a sitcom in its own world, with its own language, and features a rich mythology similar to shows like Lost. Being so, its 208 episodes span an insane amount of memorable moments from breakups to weddings to near misses with the titular and ultra-evasive mother. HIMYM’s core five have searched for the best burger in New York, fought the elusive cockamouse, stumbled upon their doppelgängers, and roasted each other to hell and back.
Running gags: Honestly, what wasn’t a running gag on How I Met Your Mother? This is one sitcom that had the uncanny ability to turn even the seemingly simplest throwaway joke into a running gag. Entire episodes, even seasons, were centered on running gags, like when everyone called Barney “Swarley” for an episode and when he had to wear a ducky tie in the seventh season. But the show’s best running gags were the Slap Bet, Robin’s Canadian pop star alter ego Robin Sparkles, “eating a sandwich,” and the intervention banner. You can’t forget Barney’s unique vocabulary: “legen-wait for it-dary,” “awesome,” “haaave you met–,” and “suit up!”
Key episodes: “The Pineapple Incident,” “Slap Bet,” “Lucky Penny,” “Slapsgiving,” “Ten Sessions,” “Girls Versus Suits,” “Subway Wars,” “Bad News,” “The Final Page,” “Daisy.”